Ed Funding To Be Considered This Summer

A plan to change the way school districts get money from the state will get a vetting from members of the Illinois House over the summer. The plan passed the Illinois Senate but didn’t get called for a vote in the House, which isn’t a problem for the sponsor, State Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill). “I think we should give the House the time that they need to go through the bill,” said Manar. “It’s a complicated piece of legislation.”

Click here for summary

State Rep. Linda Chapa Lavia (D-Aurora), chairman of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, is good with the pace too. “I’d like us to spend the whole summer doing some more work on it because I don’t think it’s all the way done,” said Chapa Lavia. The bill would shift Illinois’ current funding formula, where less than 50 percent of the money is awarded based on need, to one that is based almost exclusively on need. That would mean poorer school districts, in terms of property wealth and family income levels of the students, would get more money than they are now and wealthier school districts would get less.